John Delcos enters his third season covering the Mets for The Journal News after eight seasons on the Yankees beat. Prior to coming to New York, John covered the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

The Mets’ lineup isn’t invincible, but sheesh, get a little tired against them, lose just a little edge, and they’ll crush you.

Aside from a few rookie hiccups, I was very impressed with John Maine last season, and even moreso in the post-season. He looked good in the spring, and last night showed that he may have taken a big step forward in his development. He reminds me a little of Bobby Jones (the good one) though he seems to be way ahead of Jones’ development curve age-wise. At this point, there’s every reason to believe that he’s going to be a plus starter as a #3, and his size and mental makeup tell me that he could be a fixture in our rotation for a long time. Let’s not forget that just two years ago, before the rushed him, this kid was a can’t miss prospect in the Baltimore system… he hasn’t just come out of nowhere.

I know that it’s just one series, but damn, it feels good to exorcize some demons by slapping the Cards around in their house. All spring I kept watching and thinking that the thing missing from the team was that energy, that intensity that seemed to carry them – and define them – last season. I guessed (hoped) that with all the vets on this squad, who have seen more boring spring trainings than they care to remember, there would be a massive shift when the lights came on for real. Seems to be the case.

Someone—maybe Dave Campbell?—said that the Met lineup will beat upon second-tier pitching.

The guys you theoretically want to pitch to in the Met lineup—Green and Valentin—would be upgrades over their counterparts in the Cardinal lineup (Preston Wilson and Adam Kennedy). That illustrates the Mets’ depth.

Apparently, Willie Randolph didn’t absorb every lesson from Joe Torre. April games count just as much as September games, especially against teams in your division. Screw finding out if Ambiorix Burgos has any balls!!! Why did he have Feliciano warmed up if he wasn’t going to bring him in to pitch to Howard? His other option, with two out and runners on 2nd and 3rd, was to walk Howard and have Burgos pitch to their righty hitting catcher. At worst, they bring in a lefty pinch hitter. Then, Willie has the last move: leave in Burgos to face the lefty, or bring in Feliciano and force Manuel to use two pinch hitters for one at bat, on top of being down to his last catcher in the 6th inning. All better situations than choosing to pitch to the best home run hitter in the game right now. It’s like Randolph was trying to lose the game.